You don't have to dream anymore
by Jill Cohen
Summary: The truth about Jesse's status at UCLA comes out.    Spoilers for 2x20 Prom Queen. Missing scene.


Hi every one! This is my first St Berry fiction! I'm excited about it and super happy to have Jon Groff back in Glee. His singing with Lea was superb and I absolutely loved every one of his scenes. However, one thing I didn't like is the whole "flunked out of college" thing and how stupid he was sounding not knowing what was a recession and all that.

That's where the beauty of Fanfiction is: we can explore the things we love and rewrite the things we don't.

This is set just a few days after Prom and contains spoilers for Prom Queen. Hope you enjoy! Reviews are appreciated as I'm just starting at this writing thing and so I need all the advice I can get.

* * *

><p>Jesse had been back for only a few days and in many ways it felt like he had never left. Rachel had gone outside after Sue had thrown him and Finn out of prom, hoping the boys had stopped fighting. No such luck. Finn was long gone, but Jesse had stayed, leaning against a car on the parking lot. As she approached him he stood up straight and waited for her to get closer. She wasn't actually surprised when she saw he had a slight bruise forming on his left cheek. He, however, was quite surprised to see the bruise forming on her left cheek. She read the question on his face and offered the answer.<p>

"Quinn."

"Why?"

"Kurt won Prom Queen."

"Of course." He smiled down at her thinking how beautiful she looked in that dress, in the moonlight, here way from everyone else, just him and her, both with the colourful results of fighting. "Aren't we quite the pair?" he said getting closer to her and lightly caressing her bruised cheek.

"Hum" She acknowledged him with a smile and leaned her head into his hand and closing her eyes. But he suddenly stepped back, startling her.

He stood up straight, one hand behind his back and the other he offered to her and said "Would you like to dance?"

"I'd love to" She took his hand and stepped into his embrace. They danced to his humming of "All I ask of you", alone in the parking lot, outside of Prom, just them, Jesse and Rachel.

From then on things went right back to where they were before the egging episode. Like no time had gone by at all. One afternoon a couple of days later they were in Rachel's bedroom, simply talking and catching up while listening to his encyclopaedia-like music list. He was selecting some music to play and checking his emails on his laptop on Rachel's desk while she was lying on her bed, looking at him, chatting away. He excused himself briefly to the kitchen to make them some sandwiches (he was just as comfortable at her house as he had always been) and just before he left the room she said she wanted him to hear a song she was considering for Nationals and he said for her to find it in his music list and play it. She sat at her desk in front of his laptop and was about to search his list when something on the internet page he had open grabbed her attention. The page was his email account and opened was an email from UCLA Performing Arts Department. It was a Final Marks report for one Mr. Jesse St. James.

She sat there in shock, staring at the email, rereading it until Jesse returned to the room with some food for them. "Jesse, what is this?" She asked in a thin whisper.

Jesse paused his movements when he saw what she was talking about. "What, you're going through my emails now?" He asked in anger that suddenly boiled inside of him.

He was evading the question and she knew it. "You know that's not what I was doing." She said firmly. "Now, what is this?"

Jesse sighted and sat on the bed, looking at the floor. Not saying anything.

"You didn't flunk out of college. You got straight As!" Rachel's voice got stronger only to break as she said the last word, tears starting to spill down her face.

"Rach, don't cry." He tried to reach for her but she pulled back away from him.

"You're lying to me again! Why?" She stood up from the desk, moving to the other side of the room, as far away from him as possible. "What is the reason this time? Why are you here? Just so you can leave me all over again at the end of summer!"

"Rachel, I'm not tricking you. Not this time. You've got to believe it." Jesse wanted to go to her but knew better and kept his distance for now, giving her some space.

"Then what? I don't understand!"

Jesse sighted again, rubbing his face with his hand. "You're right; I didn't flunk out of college." He paused for a second before dropping the bomb. "I quit."

Rachel heard him but could not quite believe what he said "You quit? You quit UCLA?" She put emphasis on _UCLA_ in an attempt to convey to him just how impossible what he was telling her sounded.

"Well, for now I have differed… but essentially, yes, I quit."

She took a step closer to him, shock now returning to her completion. "Jesse, what have you done? Why?"

"I wasn't happy there." He answered matter-of-factly as if he was discussing the weather.

"But…" her ability to form sentences has escaped her. Jesse had quit college. The college he had a full scholarship to. It made no sense, it was ludicrous.

He decided to just lay it all out for her. "Rachel, all my life I wanted to get out of Ohio because Ohio never had anything for me. Then I met you." He paused and stepped closer to her, wanting to touch her. "I meant what I said. Hurting you is my one great regret. I don't want to be away from you."

"Jesse, I'm flattered, but this is your career!"

"Please, with those marks and my talent, I can get a full ride to anywhere, any time." He laughed arrogantly, throwing his head back, looking more like the Jesse St. James of a year ago then ever.

She saw no point trying to control his ego. She had, after all, seen his marks report and so had to admit he was right. So she just continued with the issue. "Then why didn't you just say that? Why the whole charade about flunking?"

He shrugged his shoulders, looking slightly sheepish. "That's the story I told everyone, my friends and my parents. Believe it or not my parents would rather have a loser for a son than a quitter." His voice carried a little bit of bitterness that she knew only she would have detected.

"So they are ok with this?" She said sitting down next to him on the bed.

"Of course not. They kicked me out."

"Jesse!" She cried exasperated by how cavalier he was acting about it.

"What?"

"What are you going to do without your parents?"

"I don't need my parents! Hell, I hate my parents! Besides, I'm 18. I can do whatever I want."

"But what are you going to do about money?"

"I don't need them for money anymore. I was telling the truth when I said I'm going to be a show choir consultant. I mean, this is Ohio, there's definitely business for me here." She nodded knowing he had a point. "And unlike what I said, I did get a job in LA. Not one as a waiter in Jonny Rockets because let's face it, that's just degrading and a waste of my talents. It was at a gym actually. I was assistant dance teacher, mostly ballet." He told her proudly.

"Really?" She smiled at that, knowing he would have been great at that job and imagining all the little girls fawning over their very charming teacher.

"Yes. I saved a lot of money this year too. I knew my parent would cut me off after I told them I had flunked out so I saved all the money they sent me every month. I've a decent amount saved up; enough to get my own place here in Lima. Well, rent, but still."

She was proud of him. Proud that he had done so well, just as she had expected him to. She had been quite surprised when he had first told her that Jesse St. James had done less than brilliantly at anything. Even more she was ecstatic that he clearly cared enough for her to do some major life altering decisions. Still, she felt he was giving up on his entire life for her, and she didn't know if she agreed or was comfortable with it. "But…"

"What, Rach?" He asked when she didn't put her thoughts into words.

"Lima?" She said cringing. "What about your dream? What about Broadway?"

Jesse smiled easily, wanting to soothe her worries. "Rachel, in a year you graduate high school. Then we can get out of here together. I'll still have my spot in LA is that's where you decide to go. If it's somewhere else that's fine, if it's New York, even better!" he scooted over closer to her on the bed and put a hand on her thigh. "I wouldn't want to be on Broadway without you. Until then I'll work, get more experience, make more money and be with you."

Rachel sighted heavily starting to let herself believe what he was saying was real, that he had come back for her. "This is crazy." She said smiling

A huge smile opened in Jesse's face. "I know. Isn't it great?" He said squeezing her leg lightly.

They just smiled at each other for a few moments until Rachel realised something. "Wait. If your parents kicked you out, where have you been living?" He made a slight cringing face at her, retrieving his hand and she instantly this could not be good. "Why do I feel like I'm going to hate the answer to that?" She added.

"It's not Shelby." He said right away, reading her thoughts.

"No?" She asked surprised.

"No. I did go to her, I have to admit. But she's got enough going on with a toddler in the house. I'd only be bothering her." Rachel's face turned colder and distant right away, looking away from him and again he knew what she was thinking. "Rach, you have to understand she's the closest thing I have to a parent. What she did to you was awful, what she did to us. Making me go after you then making me leave you and then sending you on your way? It was ridiculous, and I didn't talk to her for months because of it. But she was there for me in every way my parents weren't. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." She smiled lightly again at him. "It does make me upset that she's willing to be a mother any one but me, including Quinn's child. But I can't be angry at her for being there for you. I have two amazing fathers and they are more than I could ever ask for. So it's ok."

"Thank you." He said honestly, glad that she was fine with the fact he didn't hate Shelby.

"So, if not with Shelby then where are you living?"

"With my aunt and uncle. They have always taken me in and they always will."

"Of course." She gave a knowing nod, surprised she didn't think of Jesse's uncle right away.

"But as soon as I get the consultant gig up and running I'll get my own place." He added right away. "I've even started looking. Come here, I'll show you." He said excitedly, grabbing her hand and dragging her to the desk where his computer still sat. He sat on the chair and placed her on his knees and brought up a property renting website, with photos of the properties he was interested in viewing once he started officially looking for a place. He pointed to her the places he liked best, the locations he liked best and even some plans on decoration. She watched him talk about his plans with such pride that she finally let herself take in what he had just told her. Jesse St. James was here. For her.

She turned to face him on his lap, lacing her fingers together at the back of his neck, looking straight in his eyes. "I can't believe this is happening." She said. "So many nights I spent dreaming up how you'd come back for me."

"I'm here." He answered with a simple smile, wrapping his arms around her waist. "You don't have to dream anymore."


End file.
